The Heart of the Instrument

As a musician, singer, songwriter and worship leader, Jon Abel’s world has revolved around his ability to play guitar. As far as his career and job goes he has been completely dependent on his ability to play those six strings. It’s how he makes a living and a huge part of his identity.

Jon’s hard work and commitment to his craft have paid off big. He has a manager in Nashville, on going record deals, and even a gold record for a song he wrote that fellow Christian artist Chris Tomlin performs. For Jon, to play the guitar and lead in contemporary worship is not just a hobby but a passion which makes him truly feel alive and significant.

A Mowed Down Dream

When Jon was a kid, he was taught to put up the lawn mower after the last cut of the season. You empty the gas and lube the wheels before you cover it up for the next 4 to 5 months.

In a hurry late last fall, to go on a date with his bride, Jon let the last of the gas burn through the lawn mower while he lifted it up to lube the back wheels. He was busy thinking about other things when he casually put his left hand under the mower to pick it up. A horrible sound and jolt of electricity went through Jon’s body. In that quick instant, everything changed in Jon’s life. He picked up his ring finger, covered his hand and went to the hospital.

After an unsuccessful attempt to reattach his finger, Jon recalls the thoughts and fears he was dealing with. “I just remember thinking…this will be something which would completely derail my plans. Everything was in jeopardy. How could I even play without a finger that is so crucial to every chord? Just so many unknowns with no immediate answers.”

And from that place Jon began a time of painful solitude and seeking after the Lord he loved so much. He fought the usual suspects of why me and why now but somehow after a while, he began to find small glimmers of hope.

Worshiping Warrior

Jon’s favorite verse in the Bible became Proverbs 16:9. A man’s heart plans his way,

But the LORD directs his steps. To him it meant that when you can’t depend upon your plans, you can depend upon the Lord’s direction.

“As I have looked back through my life, I realized there has never been a time where God is unfaithful. I have taken great comfort in the fact that this was no surprise to God so I have started to look forward to my future again.”

After several months Jon has began to relearn to play his guitar. It’s very different but then again so is he. He says he has learned to trust God more and to surrender to Him more. Jon is now trying lead out of his weakness and not the strength of his ability to play but to lead out of the brokenness of his heart.

He still wants to be a skillful musician Jon says. “But the thing God is most concerned about in my worship to Him is to never forget that the instrument He is most concerned about is my heart.”

We are all rooting for you Jon. The Brewer sends his blessings with a thank you for choosing to be a worshiping warrior. May God find all of our hearts instruments he can put his hands on and play like Chet Atkins and Eddie Van Halen.

Troy Brewer ("The Brewer") Pastors Open Door Ministries and can be reached at troy@opendoorministries.org or at www.freshfromthebrewer.com

Kings and Kingdoms

The King of Handshakes

There are lots of neat world records in the famous Guinness Book. When I was a kid I would pour through the worn out copy of my middle school’s library trying to find one I could break. Most handshakes in a single day seemed plausible to me. A New Jersey Mayor named Lazarow was in the Guinness Book of World Records for a 1977 publicity stunt where he shook more than 11,000 hands in a single day. He broke the record previously held by President Theodore Roosevelt, who in 1907 recorded 8,513 handshakes at a White House reception. I could do that, I thought. I mean, I had at least twenty friends -they would help.

The King of Toro

As a kid I never made it into the book but I know another kid who did. The accession of King Oyo to his father's throne in Uganda, East Africa marked the beginning of a new season for the people of Toro. At the age of three-and-one half years old, King Oyo of Toro earned a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest reigning monarch. In the fall of 1998 I had a chance to visit with the queen and the queen Mother at is Palace in Kampala. He was around 7 on the day I spent with him. His friends called him Oyo and he loved to play soccer but when business time came he dawned the royal robes, put on his crown and became King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi the 4^th.

I can’t say I envied him one bit. Yes, it’s cool to be the king when you’re grown up but not when you’re a kid -especially in East Africa. One major thing King Oyo had going for him was a mom who really had her act together. The queen mother was an extremely diplomatic and graceful lady who loved her little boy to pieces. After the regents left the room and she ordered the officials to go home, the Queen Mother asked me to pray for her little boy and it was an amazing afternoon.

Ambassadors for the King

I have learned from first hand experience that there is a certain protocol in dealing with a king. As a Christian, I am learning more and more to view my life and my relationship with the Lord through a Kingdom mentality. Jesus is the King of Kings and big part of what he preached was The Kingdom, The Kingdom, The Kingdom.

Myles Monroe points out that as Kingdom people, the Bible says we are ambassadors for Christ. In his book Kingdom Principles, he points out the qualities of an ambassador.

An Ambassador is appointed by the king, not voted into position. He is appointed to represent the state or kingdom and committed only to the state’s interests. An Ambassador embodies the kingdom that sent him and is totally covered by the state.

He is the responsibility of the state, totally protected by his government and never becomes a citizen of the state or kingdom to which he is assigned. His goal is to influence the territory for His kingdom and he never speaks his personal position on any issue, only his nation’s official position.

As Ambassadors of the Kingdom and residents of Heaven, living in Texas, we Christians should be totally committed to representing the Kings heart and agenda. Let’s do what we can while we can. Some day soon, He will call you and I home and our assignment will be over.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.

2 Corinthians 5:20

Religion and Politics

Today’s cup from the Brewer comes perking with feisty right wing flavors and liberal doses of what I hope will leave a good aftertaste. I’m highly caffeinated today – be warned.

I very rarely state my political views from the pulpit or PC but not because I don’t have any. I am a passionate person and whatever I feel is typically in full tilt. If you have read this column through the years it should not surprise you to learn some people would accuse me of being a little right wing of Attila the Hun. That’s not true…well for the most part.

The Sleeping Giant

Ten years ago I was invited to be on a political panel at a TCU debate as a special guest where they thought because I am so liberal in helping people; I would somehow be liberal in political arenas.

Some knucklehead suggested we as a nation owe Japan an apology for dropping the bomb on them back in ’45 and then turned to me and said “Reverend Brewer, don’t you agree?” I said I think Japan owes the world an apology for being a nation of rapists and locusts before we saw fit to put an end to their death march across the pacific.

Furthermore I said Japan owed us a great big thank you for only dropping two bombs on his highness the 666^th emperor and for rebuilding their nation afterwards. For some strange reason I was never invited back.

It insulted me that because they knew I was a Christian who reaches out to hurting people, they actually thought I would be a pacifist pansy. As the prophet John Wayne said in Big Jake, “Not hardly.”

About seven years ago, I was in London England and came across several hundred protesting socialists bad mouthing America and burning Uncle Sam. I’m no Dixie chick so I protested the protesters. Me and Andy Dally stood out there yelling, “God bless America!” As the Prophetess Flo said to Mel at the diner, “They can kiss my grits.”

Good Guys

So believe me when I tell you I do have passionate political views. I’ve been to tea parties this year and town halls. Like a lot of you, I have been very unhappy with our nation’s current administration. It completely pegged my cringe meter when our Commander In Chief literally bowed down to the Muslim king in Saudi Arabia this year.

I can’t say it surprised me, but oh how it turned my stomach. On that same trip he announced “While we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation” and that it could be said “we are one of the largest Muslim countries in the world.” Then he apologized to the world for how we have defended ourselves against our enemies and “in America there is a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role.” In my view the bad guys are very happy with our president.

The bad guys to me are the brainwashed Neanderthals who think they will get a free ticket to heaven complete with 70 perpetual virgins for decapitating our families. While many people in the world are not sure if this fits into their file of a bad guy, it sure fits into mine. We are the good guys and if Egypt and France don’t understand that, I would refer them to John Wayne or Flo from Mel’s diner.

I am wildly patriotic and I don’t care who doesn’t like it. If you cut me I will bleed red, white and blue. Not only am I an American, I am a sixth-generation Texan which makes me an American on steroids. So you would think these are the kinds of things I would write about every week but its not.

I am much more passionate about my hope in Jesus Christ.

The truth in Jesus is so much greater than the facts of politics. I am not an ambassador for all things American. I am an ambassador for the Kingdom of God and my highest agenda is to influence the world for Jesus.

So it should not surprise you to know President Obama has the fullest support of the Brewer in every way I am able to support him. As an Ambassador of Jesus Christ he can expect me to honor him. He can also expect me to hate anarchy, injustice and poverty. I pray for him everyday and if you are a Christian this should also be your position too.

Hoping for the Best

It doesn’t mean you have to support every policy and it doesn’t mean you can’t rigorously fight against his policies if you disagree, but president Obama should be able to expect Kingdom people to be blessers and loyalists.

Every Christian should want nothing but good things to happen to our president. He captured 53% of the vote and a huge part of it was due to race. Only 4 out of every 100 black voters voted against Obama. I say this because if something terrible happened to this president it would cause a racial division in our nation which might take another 100 years to overcome. The Kingdom of Hell would love for something like that to happen and there should not be a Christian alive who would partner with those kinds of words or even thoughts. Pray for our President!

To sum it up, it’s not about our opinions near as much as it is about the King’s agenda. The grace of God and the message of Christ are greater than any evil in our day. Jesus really is the solution and my hope is in him. God bless president Obama and God bless the United States of America. God bless everybody, on both sides of the isle, especially those I just really hacked off.

New Level / New Devil

Back To School

Do you remember Rodney Dangerfield? He was famous for off-the-wall one-liners mostly about how he never got any respect. He said things like, “I told my psychiatrist that everyone hates me. He said I was being ridiculous… everyone hasn't met me yet.”

To the Brewer that’s funny stuff.

“My wife was afraid of the dark until she saw me naked,” he said. “Now she says she's afraid of the light.” I know some religious folk won’t find this appropriate but truth be told, many of us can Identify. Can I hear an Amen?

Well, Rodney did a movie sometime in the eighties called Back to School. It was mostly very forgettable so you might not remember it, but movie or not, Back to School is on a lot of people’s minds these days.

New Levels/New Devils

I had a chance to speak to a couple hundred kids this last week which have reentered the fabled halls of public academia. The message I delivered in classic Brewer form was titled New Levels /New Devils. I warned these young minds full of American mush that with every new opportunity come new dangers which must be taken seriously and new responsibilities that have to be taken up.

You and I know this is how it works. If you get a bigger House, you have to pay bigger taxes and a bigger electric bill. You get a bigger car; you pay more at the pump. In the Kingdom of God this principle is a staple for every advancing believer but it is not our place to be cautious in going to the next level –its counsel to be willing to change.

The idea is not to avoid the next level. The idea is to understand that better is never easier. With advancement and promotion comes the requirement of maturity and responsibility. God wants us all to run to the next level and fully embrace the change which is required to have dominion there. It may be true that a lot more is on the line in being a General, but it is definitely better than being a buck private. So go for the next level.

Get Your Upgrade

Hunter Thompson wrote about fear and loathing in Las Vegas but the Brewer is a Herald of love and confidence in Christ Jesus. The enemy is always vulnerable to our confidence in Jesus Christ. Darkness hopes we will be see ourselves as quivering victims who are impotent, wounded and helpless. That’s not you my friend so get yourself up –way up. From faith to faith, from everlasting unto everlasting, from deep to deep just keep on going and conquer the next grade.

The Love of God never holds us back from the next level but lifts us up, propelling us forward and making us all overcomers. The Bride of Christ is not just wearing a wedding dress, we’ve also got on combat boots and the devil is scared to death we’re going to go to the next level.

Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord . Romans 8:37-39

Contact the Brewer @ www.FreshFromTheBrewer.com

Lightnin’ Bug

When I was a kid there seemed to be a lot more of everything around. The distance from Ft Worth to my home town Joshua, was much greater back then. Somehow the expanse has disappeared and I wonder about that.

Under an increasing amount of grey hairs my head tries to wrap itself around the recollection of very long summers. Is it just me or does it seem like time has some how accelerated? The 2^nd season has jumped from a school zone to the autobahn and I wonder where the summers have gone to. Maybe that’s just me but other things have disappeared which can not be denied.

A very young Texan might argue that I don’t know a thing about Halo 3, Skype or iphone applications but sadly I could point out they don’t know about red ant mounds, horny toads, tarantulas and Jackrabbits. Those things were everywhere when I was a kid.

They left town sometime in the eighties just about the time fire ants and AMDRO came to the neighborhood. One thing which has nearly disappeared that I thought would never go away, was until recently a summertime staple of every north Texan’s summer. City kids and northerners called them fire flies but we called them Lightnin’ Bugs.

When I was little, my cousins and I would catch hundreds at my Grand Parents house and put them all in a single Mason jar. As the night got darker our jar would get brighter. The summertime fields of my childhood were somehow filled with the bio-luminescent glow of something a lot of kids around here have never seen at all. Too many lights outside mean Lightnin’ bug males fail to attract females and they just can’t reproduce. Before long the population dwindles and people think you are crazy when you try to explain what other wise used to be commonly known.

We as Christians are a lot like Lightnin’ bugs I think. When we fail to let our lights shine people can’t relate to what we are talking about and numbers begin to decline. I actually wish there was a lot less talking and lot more shining going on among us believers. The active demonstration of what we believe is so important as our culture declines and our nation moves into a very real post-Christian era. People don’t just need to hear it; they need to personally experience the profound life changing love of the Lord Jesus Christ.

It is our responsibility as Christians to let that light shine. By the grace of Almighty God may we learn to look a lot more like the Mason jar at my Nana and Papa’s house. As times get darker may we get brighter and brighter.

….But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: Romans 5:20

Get Your Head in the Game

A phone call would wake us up last Friday to let us know things had changed in a drastic way. A young man who I know very well was found dead in his back yard from yet to be determined causes.

He came from a good family and was a very sweet kid. I know him because he was my son Ben’s best friend and he was big part of our church youth group. Unfortunately, we will leave the funeral and drive directly to Tyler to drop Ben off at his first year of college. This is a week of drastic change for us.

From the phone call last Friday to the road trip this week I feel a big responsibility to have a right mind and both hands on my mental steering wheel. I just won’t let my self go to certain places of thought the same way I won’t go to certain parts of town. Knowing at I can get into bad trouble if I go to those places.

When your heart is changing lanes and moving all over the road it’s important to get things strait between your ears. It’s up to us to stay in good mental places and refuse to think bad things during challenging times.

I can’t control my feelings anymore than you can but I can manage my thoughts and my thoughts control my feelings. There is hope in understanding this biblical principal. There is also a sobering responsibility.

Serving God in our thought life is where the rubber meets the road for me. According to Joshua one verse eight you either celebrate success or suffer defeat based on your thought life. Your actions, feelings and identity are connected to your thought life. Getting God from your heart to your head can mean the difference between winning or loosing in this lifetime. Sometimes you have to be determined to have a right mind.

INTENTIONAL THINKING

The Bible says we should stand when you have done all you know how to do. When the only thing we know to do is the wrong thing, it is best to not do anything. We need to just stand sometimes. Just like that, if I don’t really know what to think about something, I have to intentionally not go into wrong thinking. I’m responsible for it.

Intentional and focused thinking is a skill which must be practiced. You have to understand the value of right thinking and the danger of wrong thinking to set your heart on what is right. In Philippians 4, Paul lists eight things worth thinking about and says we should intentionally “think on these things”. Focused thinking brings clarity to a defined target and is connected with a determination of our heart.

So I choose to celebrate the life of young Jonathan Walden and the accomplishments of Benjamin Brewer going off to college. I look at a picture of the two of them together at their last football game a few months back. I see two young men worth rejoicing over and it makes me want to keep my head in the game. As hard as the battle is, it is a privilege and an honor and a blessing to others to have a right mind. Thanks Lord, for the opportunity. I’ll take it.

Benjamin & Jonathan

Bailed Out

Barry Shell of Brampton, Ontario could call it his lucky day - or his unlucky day when he won $4.4 million dollars in the Canadian Lotto drawing July 18th. Monday, he went to pick up his winnings at the Ontario Lottery & Gaming Corporation, and was photographed with the check. Barry then strolled out of the building and into the waiting hands of the Peel Regional Police officers.

It turns out he was wanted on a six-year-old warrant for failing to appear, theft under $5,000 and possession of property obtained by crime.

According to a spokesman for the OLG, every lottery winner undergoes a security check, and if anything is turned up during the course of the investigation, the matter is turned over to the Ontario Provincial Police. Believe it or not the brother made bail.

In the midst of our government’s bailout policy, which the Brewer thinks is nothing but trouble for all of us; it is easy to dismiss the whole idea of bail –And I don’t want to.

Sometimes in life we just get overwhelmed and need our sinking ship bailed out.

A long time ago, God had a real bailout plan He instituted in ancient Israel called the Year of Jubilee. For most people this incredible celebration occurred only once in their life time. For many not even that, as it occurred only once every 50 years but it was something everybody looked forward to.

At the year of jubilee a horn would blow and all Israelites who had sold themselves into slavery because of debt, were set free and all land that had been sold, reverted to its original owner. This meant that no Israelite could ever be in permanent slavery; nor could any Israelite permanently lose his inheritance. It meant all debt and all bondage was absolutely temporary.

There goes my Papa again. Making sure people have hope even in the most desperate of circumstances.

The promise which is found in Jesus Christ is that no matter how tight things get, you can count on a clock to tick in your favor. God hates bondage and debt with a holy passion. He also loves freedom, reward and restoration with just as much fervor.

For those of us crazy enough to count on him, we believe our best days are not behind us and all trails are only temporary. You’re going to make it through your trouble my friend. Plus, some day soon the trumpet will blow and all debt will be cancelled for the last time. It’s the ultimate bailout and for those of us who look to the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ; we’ve got a serious Jubilee coming. See you at the Party.

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. Psalms 121:1

You can contact the Brewer at www.FreshFromTheBrewer.com